GBHS girls state-bound again
Ailing Lady Dolphins drill Bishop Kenny in regional finals; could play for state title tonight
BY JASON THOMPSON Gulf Breeze News jason@gulfbreezenews.com

Photo courtesy of Dallas Sullivan On the road again - to Fort Lauderdale The Lady Dolphin soccer team is all smiles as they prepare to leave Gulf Breeze High to go to Fort Lauderdale for the 4A state soccer tournament. The Lady Dolphins played Merritt Island Wednesday and with a win, will play either St. Augustine Nease or Fort Myers Cypress Lake in the championship game tonight at 6 p.m.

The Lady Dolphin soccer team showed their mettle last week, beating Washington with three starters out or playing sick, then beating Jacksonville Bishop Kenny with six ailing players to clinch their second consecutive Region 1-4A title.

"These girls are hungry to bring home a championship - they want it and they want it bad," coach Sharon Kerby said. "They're willing to dig down and do whatever it takes to get the job done."

Gulf Breeze, playing in their seventh state tournament in the last 10 years, faced Merritt Island in a state semifinal game Wednesday (after the News' deadline) at Lockhart Stadium. With a win, the Lady Dolphins (18-6-1) will face the St. Augustine Nease-Fort Myers Cypress Lake winner in tonight's 4A state championship game.

Jason Thompson/Gulf Breeze News Good luck, friend Brittany Pyle (right) and Washington's Lindsey Williams embrace during the captain's meeting before their regional semifinal match Jan. 29. GBHS won 2-0. Williams is friends with many of the Lady Dolphin players.

Lady Dolphins 2,Washington 0

The Lady Dolphins, with three full or part time starters battling the flu, scored twice in a three minute span to beat Washington in a regional semifinal match Jan. 29.

Midfielder Carly Loehr and senior Brittany Pyle didn't play, while Jesse Vickrey, who had a 102-degree temperature earlier in the day, played 70 minutes.

With Pyle not playing, midfielder Noelle Robles was the only senior position player that saw the field. She and every other starter - forwards Maggie Rodgers, Jessica Majewski and Kristen Barona, midfielders Alyssa Smith and Amanda Curington and defenders Brynne Heatley, Amanda Green and Bianca Takacs and keeper Ashley Collins - played all 80 minutes.

The Lady Dolphins, who beat the Lady Cats three times in their four meetings this season, put the pressure on from the start, getting three corner kicks in the first eight minutes.

Robles had the team's first shot on goal, but Diana Manis made a leaping save for the Lady Cats (16-6-4).

Collins scooped a ball in the 17th minute, the first time she touched the ball. Rodgers was taken down in the box moments later, but no foul was called.

Lindsey Williams, who hadn't scored on the Lady Dolphins since Washington's regional final overtime win two years ago, almost gave the Lady Cats a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute.

The Florida Lady Gator to be ripped a shot from about 40 yards out that bounced a few feet in front of Collins, who stayed down on the ball and made the save.

Rodgers put a shot on goal in the opening minute of the second half, but Manis made the save. A Washington cross two minutes later required Collins to come off her line to make the stop.

Barona one-timed a cross from Rodgers wide in the 48th minute before Majewski scored a minute later. The junior forward put away a rebound off Manis of a shot by Curington.

Three minutes later, Barona took a cross from Smith and put it in the back of the net for her teamleading 19th goal of the season.

Washington made its first sub in the 61st minute, while GBHS made only two subs the entire match - both Platt for Vickrey.

Lady Dolphins 4,

Bishop Kenny 0

Gulf Breeze added the first of three insurance goals less than 40 seconds into the second half as they defeated Bishop Kenny in the regional finals Friday for the second straight year.

The ailing list from three days prior, which was at three, had doubled by the time of the opening kickoff, but all six played in the match.

Gulf Breeze had a corner kick and two other shots on goal before Collins had to make a sliding stop on a ball in the eighth minute.

Barona was knocked down in the Bishop Kenny box in the 13th minute, but no foul was called. A cross from Rodgers in the 18th minute was bobbled, but hauled in, by the Lady Crusader keeper.

Gulf Breeze's first goal looked resembled an old Roadrunner-Wile E. Coyote cartoon. Rodgers and Majewski played keep away with five Bishop Kenny players for more than a minute before Rodgers dribbled to the corner and sent a ball to Majewski near the sixyard box, who buried it for a 1- 0 lead in the 25th minute.

In the opening minute of the second half, Majewski returned the favor, feeding a ball up to Rodgers, who made a 40-yard run and beat the keeper for a 2-0 lead.

The goal was the 18th of the year for Majewski, while Rodgers' first half goal was also her 18th. Her assist on the Majewski goal was her fifth helper of the postseason, tying her total for all of regular season.

Gulf Breeze was far from finished where in the 61st minute, Vickrey launched a 25- yard shot into the wind, but it got blown down under the crossbar and over the keeper's hands for a 3-0 lead.

Robles, who had scored only three goals in the regular season, scored her second of the postseason in the 69th minute, scoring from the left side after taking a pass from Majewski, her teamleading 19th of the season.